TRICOR Insurance CEO gifts UW-Platteville $3 million, marks 2nd-largest donation in university history
On the first day of business law class at UW-Platteville, instructor Jim Leitl promised his students they would remember his next lesson for the rest of their lives.
He wrote a simple phrase on the chalkboard: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
Almost 50 years later, alumnus Dave Fritz still remembers.
“What he was saying was, work hard and good things will come,” Fritz said.
That lesson helped shape Fritz into one of the most influential business leaders and philanthropists in southwestern Wisconsin. Now the CEO of TRICOR Insurance and founder of the Potosi Beverage Company, a contract beverage manufacturing company, Fritz and his wife, Lois, are helping create new opportunities for the next generation of UW-Platteville students with a $3 million donation. It’s the second-largest gift in the university’s history, behind only a $10 million donation in 2021.
“This extraordinary $3 million gift is a powerful investment in the future of UW-Platteville and, most importantly, in our students,” Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said. “The flexibility this gift provides allows us to respond to the needs of our students and university in meaningful ways, from expanding scholarship support to investing in the spaces and facilities that define the student experience.
“We are incredibly ...
